TomTom has announced a partnership with HTC for providing “location-rich maps” on some of the Taiwanese company’s smartphones, starting with the Android-based Desire HD and Desire Z.

TomTom’s maps are included in HTC Locations, presented by HTC as being “a new differentiated online mapping experience” that lets “people have instant, on-demand mapping without download delays or incurring mobile roaming charges.”

While maps and location content are included in HTC Locations for free, turn-by-turn navigation must be “purchased and downloaded through HTC Locations or HTC Sync.”

I’m not sure if all this means the Desire HD (pictured below) and Desire Z come without Google Maps. I was looking over the smartphones’ official specs and features (here and here) and there’s no mention of Google at all. At the same time, the official specs of the Desire (the first Desire), the Wildfire and the Legend include Google Maps. Weird, isn’t it?

“This partnership with TomTom underlines HTC’s commitment to giving our customers an innovative navigation experience that is natural and provides unique enhancements for common navigation needs. HTC and TomTom have worked closely to optimize these amazing capabilities on HTC smartphones through our new HTC Locations application,” declared John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer, HTC Corporation.

I asked about Google Maps to an HTC manager, and the answer was that it will stay as part of Android, but the Location application included in the new HTC Sense will be just an alternative with all the advantages of an offline use. People will still be free to use Google Maps if they wish, especially for its integration with Street View, Latitude and Buzz or to look for Google Places venues.